Obviously, Barbie is a matter of national security, like movies and everything else.
Trump Goes After Toy Maker Mattel
Newsweek reports Donald Trump Threatens To Stop Barbie Dolls Being Sold in US
President Donald Trump has threatened to place a 100 percent tariff on Barbie maker Mattel, after the company’s CEO said it would continue to manufacture outside the U.S. but would be reducing its reliance on Chinese imports.
“I’ve heard [Mattel] said: ‘Well we’re going to go counter, we’re going to try going someplace else,’ ” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday. “That’s OK, let him go, and we’ll put a 100 percent tariff on his toys, and he won’t sell one toy in the United States, and that’s their biggest market.”
Better Off With No Barbies
Also consider Girls Need to Be Told Having Fewer Dolls a Good Thing.
During a Cabinet meeting last week, the president acknowledged that the ongoing trade dispute with China could see fewer toys on store shelves.
“You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open,’” Trump said. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”
The toy industry in particular, given its outsize reliance on Chinese imports, has expressed concern that should the tariffs remain in place, shoppers could face significantly higher costs and product shortages as far off as Christmas.
During a Cabinet meeting last week, the president acknowledged that the ongoing trade dispute with China could see fewer toys on store shelves.
“You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open,’” Trump said. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”
Watch Bessent Struggle With a Simple Question
That is beyond pathetic.
Please play the video. Bessent is shockingly stupid in his reply.
He knows the answer but instead lies for Trump stumbling over his words, totally unprepared for the obvious question.
Movies, a National Security Issue
Please note Movies Are Now a National Security Threat, 100 Percent Tariffs Announced
Just when you thought national security threats could not get any stupider … Trump says Hollywood ‘dying’; orders 100% tariff on non-US movies to save it.
Related Posts
May 4, 2025: Would You Pay $15,000 for this Nice-Looking EV Toyota? Zoomers?
I am sure many would say yes, but there’s a catch.
April 14, 2025: Trump’s Plan to Make Manufacturing Great Again in Pictures
The share of manufacturing employment keeps declining. What role did NAFTA play?
Also note Consumers Face End of De Minimis Tariff Exemptions on $800 Packages
The trade provision that allows consumers and resellers to avoid duties on shipments worth $800 or less is ending for products made in China.
Hooray!? 40% to 100% Higher Prices
Who wants that? (Exclusions for cultist parrots who cannot think).
The idea we are going to bring shoe or clothes manufacturing back to the US (or that we would like the price result if we did) is of course ludicrous.
Irony of the Year
Yesterday, Trump posted on Truth Social “CLOSED MARKETS DON’T WORK ANYMORE!!!”
For discussion of the irony of the year, please see 80 Percent Tariff on China ‘Seems Right’ Says Trump, But It’s Nearly as Stupid
An 80 percent tariff is nearly as stupid as a 145 percent tariff because most trade with China would still stop. Trade might stop at 50 percent.
And it is US consumers who pay that tariff, not China.
After ranting about “closed markets” yesterday, today Trump insists Barbie dolls be made in the US.
You can’t make this up.
Yes. And he also puts “kids in cages” like the carcIcature villain in the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Give me a break. These are blanket tariffs applied to almost every company. I’m so tired of ill-intentioned “focus stories” from spin doctor activists in the media, masquerading as reporters.
Producers will now flock to the USA, confident their premium market will be protected by Uncle Sam over the long haul.
What could be greater than producing forever free of the risk of competition?
The most efficient way to produce profits.
If a Democratic president had ever said, well let your kids just go with less, and stop whining abut things costing a couple bucks more everyone would have lost their minds. he’s just so constantly vile he just moved the needle on what’s acceptable and what’s worth complaning about.
eyeglasses story from some people we know
most people in the business had their lenses ground in China and shipped in deminimus packaging-turn around, a week or so
after tariffs came in, they went to a lab in FL, which shortly thereafter lost the majority of their employees because they had “immigration difficulties”
now they are getting them from another lab, 6 to 8 weeks wait
There are several US manufactures of eyeglass lenses such as Vision Ease, Tog, United Vision Company and the US operations of Zeiss. The tariffs will give them increased business so they can expand their operations, hire people and machinery. The French-Italian EssilorLuxottica is a different problem. They are the biggest in the world with 40 factories in Europe, Asia and South America but no US operations yet. They definitely have a problem since they are in prime tariff negotiations territory.
The lab in FL probably used imported lenses and has to line up other suppliers. I rather doubt that they are late because they lost illegal workers because lens making is a very technical skill and not something generally found among the type of people coming across the border so they are probably using it as an excuse.
I did not provide links because all this is easily verifiable.
President Signals He’s Open to Slashing China Tariffs80% tariffs are functionally no different than 145%. So high as to kill all purchases (save perhaps for something absolutely essential like meds…which if so, you would also buy at 145% if you could scrape up the funds). https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gkvp6438ko
I wish he would stop threatening and go ahead and do it already.
no zero tariff arrangements in Trump world
….The European Commission’s top trade official, Sabine Weyand, led a delegation of high-level technical experts for talks Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington. The commission on Thursday put forward a retaliatory proposal to tariff nearly €100 billion of imports — about $112 billion — including big-ticket items like aircraft, cars and medical appliances.
“They are not close,” said one EU official, granted anonymity to speak about the private talks, referring to the status of talks with the United States, earlier this week. “Because the U.S. keeps seemingly changing their focus many times — it is absurd.”
One European participant at the Munich Leaders Meeting in Washington on Wednesday, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, compared the U.S. negotiating tactic to a decaying animal.
“They’ve thrown on the table the stinking fish, and then they’ve said, ‘What do you pay me … to take that fish away? Oh, but by the way, I will just take away the head. I will leave the rest.’ So only part of the tariffs are negotiable,” the person said. “That is not really conducive to a constructive negotiation.”
talks began in Switzerland today
Trump negotiates himself down to 80% the day before
China just walked out of the talks
but didn’t leave Switzerland.
the alzhieimers unit is looking for don old. his immature revenge tour needs to end.
Biden is a prime candidate. Did you see him on the “The View” yesterday? Hard to believe they were telling us that he is as sharp as a tack.
During the Shanghai Stock exchange bubble, in late 2014, Yellen hiked EFFR to attract investors to the US treasuries. When JP moved in he decided to extract negative rates from the world. Germany didn’t care. The spread between the German 10Y and the US 10Y was 3.5% in Nov 2018. The Fed no longer can raise rates even during a high inflation. Gravity with Germany pulls them together. During Xmas massacre in Dec 2018, when SPX plunged, JP cut rates and kept them low until Nov 2021. Thereafter the Fed cont to hike and suck excess liquidity from the market. DX rose from 89 in May 2021 to 115 in Sept/ Oct 2022, During SPX bottom in late 2022 RRP floodgates were opened. Liquidity poured in and DX plunged from 115 to 100, That and additional liquidity pulses sent SPX to its Jan 2025 high.
Mattel, who also did the rotational molding for Fisher-Price, willingly outsourced their manufacturing to China. Barbie used to have her own dress designer here in Torrance.(CA) I hope the point here, is trying to get all companies to manufacture in the US. I’m not taking a side one way or another, but California would have been better off tax-wise, by not outsourcing.
For decades, California politicians have been in bed with the CCP. Read the new book, Fool’s Gold by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. California is way more corrupt than you ever imagined.
companies were encouraged to outsource to make the company higher ups richer.
Putting a cap on a tube of toothpaste is a good way to keep toothpaste in a tube, but once it’s already out of the tube, putting the cap on isn’t the solution anymore.
Bessent has to talk to so many very stupid Congresspeople of all stripes from rabid quasi-communists to fanatical Liberations. I don’t know how he keeps his calm when one of them asks a stupid question and this was a stupid question. The Congressman kept cutting him off when he tried to respond. Tariffs are a complicated subject as is globalization. The Congressman knows that but the Honorable Marc Pocan wanted a soundbite and got angry when Scott Bessent didn’t give it to him.
I guess POV is everything. I did not think this was a stupid question at all – considering Trump, Bessent, and other administration officials regularly say tariffs will be paid by other countries.
I agree it’s a complicated subject; the problem is Trump’s administration tries to make it simple. That foreign countries pay the tariff which is either entirely wrong, or at least massively deceptive.
I agree with Mish. Bessent is smart; he had to know this question will arise. So why not be ready with “Of course, Congressman, the American company importing the foreign good literally sends the money to the US Treasury. BUT the final outcome – as you already know – is more complicated and deals with price elasticities of demand that are different for every product. Our end goal is to increase the amount of taxes paid on foreign products to increase the consumption of US products and US production workers which we believe will bring in more overall taxes through increased US production to reduce the deficit – which all Americans want.”
Then we can argue over whether this plan actually has a reasonable chance of success or not. And not why Trump’s administration regularly lies to us about who literally pays tariffs. And Bessent would not look like a fool that is in charge of these policies, but can’t answer straightforward questions my kids would ask.
stop defending stupidity
That reply from Bessent was unimaginable
In Jan 2018 Trump imposed tariffs on solar panels and washing machines. In Feb 2018 William Ross imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum. Canada and Mexico were exempted. The stock markets plunged, but DX rose from 88 in 2018 to 105 in late 2019, building a Lazer aiming at Trump #2 in Jan 2025. After Trump #2 election, between Jan 2025 DX plunged from 110 to 98. In Apr 2025 Canada and Mexico weren’t exempted. SPX retraced 68% of Feb/Apr plunge, but DX is still in its preparation stage. No harm was done. Options:
Option #1: without barbie DX will plunge.
Option #2: within a few years DX will rise to the Lazer and breach 2022 high.
Take your bets.
This is good news for children, and parents alike. Playtime needs to be rejuvenated, not incorporated.
Children, consumers, corporations and countries alike…
All cannon fodder…
to a Mad King Chaos and his global TiRADE WAR.
There is a wonderful park in Westmont Illinois thanks to Ty Warner, not any Wall Street private equity rats.
Well they could start making the dolls in the USA…
What’s next, an import tariff on Eastern European wives? Oh, wait. Nevermind.
The incompetence & petty vengeance are beyond describing. The cave-ins & enablers of this truly insane government are culpable too. We nominate you Mish to write the official historical account of this dastardly regime in U.S. political & economic history.
To conform to anti-DEI initiatives, for now on Barbie dolls sold in the U.S. must be anatomically correct and conform to “born gender” and not be “ambiguous”.
ken with penis. barbie with nipples and vaginas. the lord would approve
There should be no tariffs on Barbie dolls. They encourage girls to stay in shape.
not working
When the price of bread goes up, Trump will say “let them eat cake”.
Question Mish. Can a tariff be put on a individual company? And how would it be enforced?
That would be a bill of attainder, almost certainly unconstitutional, but he could just tariff dolls and board games. Same effect, but it works like a grenade where more than just the target is hurt.
I thought that was just criminal liabilty, but am not sure.
in any even, i dont’ see how targeting a specific company is different than giving individual companies or industries exemptions, which means you are discriminating against those not exempted.
this is why broad tariff regimes are disfavored, they lead to corrutopn which is literally what we are seeing, with places like Vietnam greenlighting and fast tracking a $1.5 B Trump project and companies buying his Trump coins to curry favor, promising political support during elections etc..
Previous case law extends beyond criminal liability.
see: United States v. Lovett
Not by name – That would be a sanction
But Trump could easily put 100% tariffs on all toys, hitting Mattel
Honest question, what is bad about a trade deficit measured in US dollars?
My employer ran a trade deficit with me for 35 years; he was happy as he made money on my services and I must have been happy as I stayed with the company.
I continuously run a trade deficit with my utility services and grocery store, and I am very happy to have water, electricity, sewer service, food etc.
The US runs a deficit with Canada on many things including lumber; Canada ends up with US dollars that are losing purchasing power and we have durable building materials. Seems the US is doing ok on that deficit trade.
Examples can go on ad nauseum, but the point is if trading partners are free to choose to make a trade or not, then trades made should benefit both parties whether ending up with money or the goods or services.
I am of the opinion that the Trump administration is not looking at the whole picture when evaluating the trade situation with our partners. End result of trying to force equal dollar outcomes is we are going to end up paying more for virtually everything with dollars that continually lose purchasing power because we are not taking care of the monetary and fiscal house we live in, and the instability is only making things worse.
Yep, the fiscal deficit and trade deficit are two different animals. Not sure Trump understands that.
there is no such thing as a trade deficit. that is the reality. as you stated. trading with other humans is a win/win. not trading is a lose/lose. subsistence living is usually penury.
Trump gives break to Rolls-Royce cars but threatens more tariffs on Mattel toys
Tax relief for billionaire but not for the kids.
Oh ffs.
Bessent is smart enough not to step into a silly trap laid by an a-hole congressman. Who pays tariffs depends on the elasticity of demand for the product in question.
He made himself look like a complete idiot for “being smart enough to not fall into a trap”
Frankly the clip was annoying . The guy asking the questions was an ahole. He needs to take a break and go fill his fat ass with some chips and stfu.
WOW! TDS 2. right there in that reply!
has nothing to do with tds, not a Trump fan, but that guy was annoying as fu.
Trump claims prices are down. Here’s what the data actually shows.While prices for certain goods have declined, inflation remained elevated even before tariffs show up in the data. Trump claims prices are down. Here’s what the data actually shows. – The Washington Post (archive.ph)
Another amazing, witty and informative post Mish. You’ve just earned yet another 2 start Mishelin™ rating on this post. One star for the informative wit and the second star for triggering so many MAGA cult in the comments. That’s a key indicator that it is pure gold. Sometimes the truth hurts but it will hurt more to ignore it in the long run.
Remember there is no limit to the number of Mishelin™ stars so keep giving us what we want, the truth and just let the cult stew.
LOL – Mishelin! V fitting. Yes some of these Mish BPs have me cracking up becuz he’s a wiz at making insanity & bad news – comical.
Cant we put a 145 % tariff on Trumps brain?
Yeah. I know 145% of 0 = 0
Trump has an agenda which is all his own. If he scales back his efforts a bit, he may still be successful.
You can’t put a tariff on something that doesn’t exist.
“Newsweek” hasn’t been on my credible source list since it became obvious – about 2 decades ago – that it was, at best, “Opinion Week” and quite often “B.S. Week”. (I was a slow learner; I know others had figured it out back in the 1990s.) Once I figured that out, I cancelled my 20 years’ subscription.
Mish seems to be going similarly downhill, which is really reqrettable. The articles and over half the commentary here now have an awful, unprofessional, negative emotional undertone. They read more like 3 year olds having temper tantrums, rather than thoughtful economic analysis.
I cared a bit about Disney’s self-destruction, they used to be a good brand. I don’t care at all about Mattel. “We need cheap kids’ toys from China” is not an argument even remotely competitive with “We need to rebalance the U.S. trade and fiscal deficits before it’s too late”.
Mattel will figure out how to sell dolls, that’s their business. I’m really not worried about toys costing a little more or a little less.
I am much more worried about what my life savings will be worth (or won’t) in 5 or 10 years, if we don’t solve the deficit problem and continue to let inflation run at 3%+.
And no, I don’t think tariffs are a meaningful source of long-term inflation, because fundamentally they act just like all other taxes in siphoning money out of the economy and reduce the print-and-spend deficits that do cause inflation.
I guess it’s farewell to you Wisdom Seeker. Thanks for all the laughs.
I’m not surprised you’re leaving this site (or are you?)
For the past four years, you loved to pontificate on the economic disaster Biden was going to bring to the country. You agreed with Mish on all of his bad policies and gleefully posted in agreement with Mish. Especially on how Biden was going to bring us to recession (and you were both wrong).
But Mish is generally a perma-bear. I have followed here for years and Mish has generally been more pessimistic, than optimistic on where our economic policies are going. Doesn’t surprise me as no US party or politician really wants true libertarian positions.
But you were in posting heaven as long as it was time to post against policies and politicians you don’t like. But when Mish pessimistically, but truthfully posts against your guy’s polices, and other commenters agree, it’s all “unprofessional” and “emotional”.
Good luck finding a new blog home where everyone thinks the same. There’s a lot of them out there
Recommend Wolf Street / Wolf Richter. No b.s., great data / analysis, and an acerbic sense of humor.
Thanks !
I liked the post regarding commercial real estate.
The masters of the universe could have used the debacle that is office space to hasten a financial crisis.
But they did not.
Those masters know how to huddle up and have each other’s backs!
Housing on thin ice?
Crisis it is!!!
LOL
Wolf would NEVER put up with the political posturing Wisdom Seeker posts here
It always brings me a chuckle when some of the more prolific posters here get outright annihilated by Wolf when he thoroughly explains why they are posting “BS” with their cherry-picked data and misunderstood economic policies
Since you are seeking wisdom…
A wise old grizzly brick layer who also was a finance aficionado told me this while I tended his mud and bricks and scaffolding in the early 1970s;
“Don’t worry about the debt and deficit, THEY got it all figured out”
You had to be there, perhaps, because we, as a nation, at the time we were toast because of the national debt.
50 plus years gone by.
A 20 dollar bill was a 5 then.
We’ll be dead and the next generation will be plopping hunskies like I plop fivers?
Don’t know Don’t care.
We are spinning through an ever expanding void called the universe on a molten rock filled orb, there is no beginning or end.
What could possibly be go wrong?
Huh?
I just read that Condoms will now carry a 2 Million Percent tariff, causing a huge swelling of Rubbers.
We can’t allow the Barbie gap to grow. Mr President, we need to nuke Chins now, for yhe sake of Doll National Security!!!
Good, maybe I can find one that will fit.
Signed,
Moby
I heard that trump was going to place tariffs on Santa Claus this year.
Santa is swollen up fat already.
too many empanadas.
Can we take this Barbie threat seriously from the Donald? Or is he again just pulling our Jane?
So funny how The Donald is diving some of you people up and then off the wall. Frankly, it was worth the vote just to see you Trump haters go crazy.
Moreover, seeing The Donald go to a Tariff War with both American’s enemies and so called “friends” has been a stupendous show totally worth the admission.
The one thing the MAGAs and anti-MAGAs both share is the idea that Trump actually has a plan. However things turn out both will believe it’s exactly as Trump planned it. He really can’t lose. But, hearing him make threats to corporations, proposing increasing taxes on the high income earners or trying to manage the economy through tariffs, is the same kind of nonsense you hear coming from people like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and that I find disturbing. He is going to open the door for one of these types of lunatics and that won’t be funny because they actually will have plans. Very bad plans.
Reply to Frank:
“He [Trump] is going to open the door for one of these types of lunatics”..
Hello! The door has been wide open for decades. The Donald just walked through it. All you people who think that this game should be played according to Marquess of Queensberry rules got another think coming. You people haven’t done your homework on how empires rise, plateau, decline and fall… America is an empire, and The Donald is playing the role. Going forward the only really import question is “when does this Excrement Show hit the fan?
So, get over it. Get over The Donald. And, instead, get your prepping done for the day the American Empire actually ends. Psssssst, it may be sooner than you think.
Ahh, I had you pegged as a Maga and you’re actually a doomsdayer. Good luck with whatever you’re prepping for because most likely you’ll be unprepared as everyone else for whatever unfolds, if anything. I used to kind of think like that back 2009/10, but then I realized I was wasting my time because there is no winning in that type of situation. Although, I still have my gold, so there’s that. Cheers.
I dunno bro…
Watching the twin towers implode got me and the missus prepping like in the movies.
We’d make all those elites with bunkers out yonder envious…
Well then, here we are, many a year gone by, no twin towers imploding into the abyss….
ALWAYS BE PREPPING!!!!!
Cuz the son of gawd is coming back to get us calvanist the Hella out of this bung hole!
Sleep well chicken little.
My father is hardcore MAGA with an extreme case of TDS II. That’s one thing I tell him, that the things Trump is doing, particularly the tariffs, have the potential to get a high number of leftists elected in the midterms. I don’t see any way for the GOP to hold on to the House even in the most optimistic scenario at this point. I’m just glad Trump hasn’t gone to war with Iran. If the economic pain is bad enough, it would open the door for legit Bolshevik types to muscle in, in a significant quantity.
^ typical Trump supporter = single digit IQ
Lots of a small businesses are going out if business, but they cheer it on.
I voted for Trump, but he didn’t say anything about talking non-stop about taking Greenland and Panama, arresting for writing an op-ed critical of Israel, etc. He did mention tariffs, but I thought it would be normal tariffs, sort of like Japan’s tariff on rice to protect its domestic food production so they won’t have a famine if they’re in another war. I didn’t know he was going to nuke the economy, decimate foreign tourism to the USA, and get us into another war in Yemen that we already lost the other day. We just lost another war and 90% of MAGA and Walmart shoppers don’t even know about it. At least he hasn’t gone to war with Iran, and that’s actually a pleasant surprise. I’ll give him credit where it’s due on that one.
Enjoy the Confederacy of Dunces in real life.